Mistletoe
by crimsonnette
Summary: After the final DA meeting before Christmas break, Ron and Hermione find themselves stuck underneath a magical mistletoe...Sometimes the Room of Requirement knows what you want before you do. RonxHermione / Romione/ Oneshot
Short, fluffy Romoine oneshot :3 Please read and review!

Mistletoe

The atmosphere in the Room of Requirement was particularly electric that evening. Patronuses floated all about the space, filling it with a shimmery warm glow, while their casters – albeit red cheeked and slightly out of breath—made their rounds high fiving one another in congratulation. Each DA meeting brought about a jittery excitement, one that accompanied any act of rebellion against the Umbridge regime; but tonight, being the last meeting before the Christmas holiday, and the first meeting to result any sort of real breakthrough, the air was merrier than normal and the smiles were contagious.

The cheerful chatter turned to groans when Harry announced that it was time to wrap it up for the evening; nevertheless, the students gathered their things and began to file out, still grinning sheepishly at one another. Ron, still a little pink in the ears, gave Harry a playful smack on the arm. "You did it, mate! I reckon if you can get someone like Neville Longbottom to conjure up a Patronus, you can teach anybody."

"Oh…erm…" Harry was clearly not listening. "Yeah, thanks, I reckon so". Ron followed his distracted stare and landed on the back of Cho Chang's head. He rolled his eyes.

"Just go and talk to her already; you won't get anywhere by staring at her like a sick puppy." Cho, who was luckily out of earshot, turned just then and smiled at Harry. Ron gave him an encouraging shove. "Hermione and I can take care of tidying things up, go on."

After watching his best mate exit the room with Cho, half chuckling to himself, Ron turned back to the now empty practice room. Hermione was darting around, straightening books and putting chairs back in their proper places. Her hair was a little disheveled, and she appeared to be rather exhausted, but nonetheless was humming happily to herself. Grabbing a chair, Ron joined in the cleanup. He knew it'd be faster with magic – and maybe even unnecessary to do at all, it was a magical room after all- but he so rarely had time alone with Hermione that he didn't mind.

"Did you see Luna?! Got it nearly on her first try, I'm not surprised, she's always so happy and carefree naturally….and Neville! Oh, I'm so happy he was able to get it finally tonight, what a lovely way to start off the break….and the twins, oh I couldn't believe they weren't the same! A monkey and a lemur, who would have thought…" Hermione babbled on and on, more excited tonight for everyone else than she had been after producing her own patronus several meetings ago. It made Ron smile, seeing her like this; her eyes sparkled when she was happy, her cheeks slightly flushed from the excitement. She spent so much time being serious- about school, about the DA- that she so rarely let herself enjoy moments like this. Ron liked happy on Hermione- it suited her.

"Anyway, thanks for helping—" she looked up suddenly, looking around. "Oh! Everyone else is gone, I didn't realize it was just us!" Hermione turned and flashed a smile at Ron, who returned it without hesitation. So much of their time was spent bickering or awkwardly looking away after making eye contact, it was nice to have a moment like this. "It's no problem, I wasn't quite ready for bed anyway. Plus I reckon it's less dangerous, the fewer of us that leave at a time."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully in agreement. "That's a good point, we should work out some kind of exiting protocol…." She trailed off and began to gather her things. Ron, who hadn't brought much with him, waited by the door for her.

"Oh, shoot" came Hermione's voice, muffled by the inside of her schoolbag. "My wand….you don't see it, do you? I swear I just had it, I must have put it down somewhere…"

Ron joined in her search, scanning the various desks and tables and bookshelves that littered the room. "You know, you'd think the Room of Requirement would help us out with this…" he grumbled when a five minute search yielded no results. He walked over to the area Hermione was looking in.

"Okay, what was the last thing you remember doing with it?"

"Oh, I don't know, I suppose I used it to straighten some shelves that Neville knocked over, by the chalkboard"

"Alright, then, let's start there and work our way—" Ron was cut off as he tried to walk away when some invisible force gently pushed him back. "What the…"

Hermione, who was mid turn ready to follow Ron to the other side of the room, ran directly into his back; she reeled, overcompensating, and fell back in the other direction, but instead the same invisible force pushed her forward. Ron had gathered his bearings well enough to turn and grab her elbows to steady her.

"What…what's happening?" Hermione asked in a surprised voice. "Beats me…"

The two of them pressed their hands on their invisible cage, feeling around to realize it formed a circle around them, just big enough for the two to stand in. They were close enough for Ron to notice the smell of her shampoo (coconut? Some kind of flower? He couldn't be sure, other than it smelled nice), and Hermione could feel the warmth of Ron's chest (he was a solid foot taller than her, not that she minded. She certainly wasn't distracted by how perfectly they would fit if they were to have a proper hug at this moment). Perplexed, they poked and prodded at the barrier, looking for a weak spot or a way out.

"Oh" Ron said suddenly, and though he were looking straight up at the ceiling it was clear he was beginning to blush. "Uh…"

Hermione looked up now, too, and saw what had caught his attention. "…Oh" was her response.

Above their heads was the unmistakable culprit—mistletoe.

"Mistletoe" Hermione whispered. Ron looked down at her; she couldn't read his expression.

"Um, well…" she stammered. "Surely there's a way to release the charm, if only we could go to the lib-"

"If we could go to the library we wouldn't exactly be in this mess though would we?" he said, interrupting her. His tone was more playful than antagonistic like it normally was, though.

"It's a shame, I know the perfect book, too" Hermione said, pretending not to hear him. A thump sounded at their feet as _Holiday Plants and How to Care For Them_ by Phillida Spore suddenly appeared.

"Oh, _now_ the room is helping us…how could you have possibly known about this specific of a book!?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Easter lily incident in second year…" she replied absentmindedly, already flipping through the book. "Aha! Mistletoe….. _'the mistletoe is a self-appearing plant, showing itself only during the Christmas season…lives to see exactly 25 Christmases, blah blah blah…"_ Her eyes darted back and forth across the page, looking for something that might help them.

It was Hermione's turn to blush.

"Well? What does it say?" Ron asked.

She cleared her throat. "It…well, it says: " _The mistletoe has the magical ability to entrap couples beneath it, freeing them only when the two have shared a kiss. It is known particularly for bringing together those who may not otherwise see what is in front of them_ —" she paused briefly and stole a look up at Ron, whose eyes had already grown wide. "— _because the mistletoe will only entrap two people who mutually have feelings for one another. This helps to avoid situations wherein relatives or friends may find themselves underneath the mistletoe; in these cases, they will be allowed to pass. There is no known alternative to a kiss in releasing the mistletoe's spell; admittedly, there have been few attempts to find such an alternative."_

Hermione finished reading and shut the book, which disappeared from her hands. She and Ron, both blushing furiously, were unable to make eye contact for several moments. The phrase "mutually have feelings for one another" was racing around in Ron's head as he processed what she said.

Hermione's mind, on the other hand, had gone completely blank. It was rare for her not to know what to say, or what to do; but she was so mortified that other than the spot on the floor she was currently fixating on she couldn't really think about much of anything.

It slowly dawned on Ron that this really was happening.

There was no other choice.

He was going to have to kiss Hermione.

This wasn't how he had pictured his first kiss with her, if it ever happened, would go down…but he wasn't about to complain.

Ron looked down at her, and seeing how shy she had suddenly become made him break out into a lopsided grin. He tried to hide it, but only mostly succeeded. "Well, we'll need to get to the common room soon…" Hermione looked up, not quite meeting his gaze but at least not looking at the floor any longer. Ron continued when she didn't say anything. "So, um, it sounds like there's really only one thing for us to do…" Whatever confidence he had felt moments ago dissipated when she finally looked him in the eyes and breathlessly said "Yeah, I guess there is…"

Ron felt his hand shaking slightly, but still raised it to gently tilt her chin upwards. He leaned forward and softly pressed his lips against hers. He was a little surprised when just a moment later he felt Hermione lean into him, going up on her tiptoes with a hand on his chest for balance, but responded by moving his hand behind her head and deepening the kiss further. They were both sure that one small kiss would have done the trick, but just to be on the safe side they silently agreed to continue for several minutes until, pink cheeked and a little breathless they pulled apart from one another.

There was a small _clink_ on a table nearby as Hermione's wand appeared out of nowhere. The two smiled shyly at one another before walking out of their former enclosure and grabbing their belongings. They both were a little pink in the face but left, still smiling, though it would be quite a while before either of them brought it up again.

 _Well,_ Ron thought, _perhaps the Room of Requirement knows what it's doing afterall…_


End file.
